Friday, September 11, 2009

I originally wrote the bulk of this on September 11th, 2006. Things have changed in the Middle East, but the media's message hasn't. This was demonstrated when during the Republican convention 9/11 memorial footage was shown and Keith Olberman declared it to be unnecessary, graphic, and insensitive.

If you paid attention to commentators like that, you’d think today was only about sorrow, that events of 9/11/2001 made us a nation of crying sufferers, incapable of anything else. It’s not true. It’s just what the major media would like.

We remember Pearl Harbor as the event that brought us into WWII. We have a day of remembrance on December the 7th, recalling and honoring our losses in 1941. During WWII, while we were still fighting, they didn’t do much special on that day besides rededicate themselves to eradicating the scum that initiated a cowardly sneak attack on a sleeping harbor. They didn’t prosecute our boys fighting back then–if you shot an enemy in Germany or the Pacific Islands heading toward Japan, you were a hero, not a criminal. We used flamethrowers to clear the islands of the Pacific, rather than having our men go into caves full of the enemy to be slaughtered. It was brutal, but it was us or them. We didn’t intend for them to win.

The media doesn’t want us to resurrect that fighting spirit, because if we do we might actually be successful in the Middle East. Only strength is respected in that part of the world. We have that strength, inherited from our parents and grandparents, but haven’t used it, because of our media, which the terrorists are playing like a violin.

The media are happy to go along with the enemy. They’ll do anything to make George Bush look bad, even long after he's left office. That’s their prerogative, since they own the equipment and the air time is theirs to use as they see fit. What’s not fine is this seemingly concerted effort to turn each September 11th into a sobfest, desperately trying to make sure we treat this horrific attack as an isolated incident, to be mourned tearfully as tragic. It’s not just tragic. It should be fortifying and angering and help us have the resolve to take our enemies out.

The sheer magnitude of the 9/11/2001 attack makes it stand as monolithically above the others as the Trade Towers used to stand above other buildings in the New York skyline, yet it was still just one of many. The others were not trivial. To these same enemies we can attribute many atrocities. Please note that during the 1980’s, Hezbollah is believed to have claimed responsibility for some acts under the name of “Islamic Jihad.” If the details aren’t of interest, skip the list; the size alone will make the point.

November 4, 1979: The U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran was taken by radicals and 66 diplomats held hostage until January 20, 1981. Brazen, but not yet as bold as they would become.April 18, 1983: Islamic Jihad detonated a suicide truck bomb at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. 63 people were killed and 120 injured.October 23, 1983: Islamic Jihad detonated a suicide truck bombs in both French and American military compounds in Beirut, Lebanon. 241 Americans were killed, and 58 French.December 12, 1983: Iraqi Shia terrorists tried to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, but were stopped by guards. They detonated their explosives in the courtyard. 5 people were killed.March 16, 1984: William Buckley, the CIA station chief was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad, with Iranian backing. Buckley was reportedly tortured, then killed by his captors.

September 20, 1984: Another suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon killed 23 and injured 21.

March 16, 1985: Islamic radicals, backed by Iran, begin the tradition of kidnapping journalists with Terry Anderson of the U.S. in Beirut, Lebanon. He was fortunate, as this was before they began cutting journalists’ heads off. He was released later, unharmed.

June 9, 1985: Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped from the American University in Beirut. He was held for 6 years, then released.

June 14, 1985: Hezbollah hijacked a Trans World Airlines flight and murdered a U.S. Navy diver on board. The other passengers were released 17 days later.

September 12, 1985: Joseph Cicippio, also at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped by Iranian backed Islamic terrorists. Like Sutherland, he was released 6 years later.

October 7, 1985: Palestinian Liberation Front terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise liner. The terrorists prove their bravery and dedication to Islam by shooting the disabled and wheelchair-bound 69 year old Leon Klinghoffer and tossed his body overboard.

October 21, 1985: Edward Tracy, an American Business man, was kidnapped in Lebanon by Islamic terrorists and held for almost 5 years.

April 5, 1986: Libyans detonated a bomb in a West Berlin nightclub, killing 2 Americans and wounding 79 others.

January 24, 1987: Jesse Turner and Alann Steen, Americans, were kidnapped in Beirut and held for almost 5 years.

February 17, 1988: While serving with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization in southern Lebanon, U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Higgins was kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah.

April 14, 1988: The Organization of Jihad Brigades blew up a car bomb outside a USO Club in Naples, Italy. One U.S. Sailor was killed.

August 8, 1988: A bomb was detonated aboard a C-130 aircraft, killing the Pakistani President and U.S. ambassador. Islamic terrorists were the likely bombers.

December 21, 1988: Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. No one claimed responsibility, but it was likely in retaliation for strikes against Libya ordered by President Reagan in response to the 1986 Berlin nightclub bombing. The best evidence indicated the bombers were Libyan.

February 26, 1993: Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center for the first time. The intent was to cause one tower to fall into the other, destroying both. Despite the massive explosion, the Towers stood firm.

April 14, 1993: The Iraqi intelligence service attempt to assassinate former president George Bush in Kuwait.

August 21, 1995: Hamas detonated a bomb in Jerusalem, killing 6 people and injuring over 100, including several Americans.

June 25, 1996: Islamic radical terrorists blew up a truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia near U.S. Air Force housing, killing 19 Americans and injuring 385.

February 23, 1997: A Palestinian gunman shot tourists on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. He killed a Danish visitor and wounded several others while, per a note in his pocket, “punishing the enemies of Palestine.”

August 7, 1998: Islamic Terrorists linked to Osama Bin Laden attack U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salem, Tanzania. Bombs did massive damage to both embassies.

December 28, 1998: Yemeni militants kidnapped a group of Western tourists.

August 12, 2000: The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan kidnapped 4 Americans, who escaped later that day.

October 12, 2000: The U.S.S. Cole sustained heavy damage in Yemen when a small dinghy was detonated near the hull by supporters of Osama Bin Laden. 17 Americans died and 39 were wounded.

December 30, 2000: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front detonated a bomb in a plaza next to the U.S. Embassy in Manila in the Philippines, injuring 9 people.

September 11, 2001: 4 hijacked aircraft were used by Osama Bin Laden’s supporters to kill over 3,000 Americans, two crashed into the tallest buildings of the World Trade Center (the Twin Towers), one crashed into the Pentagon, and one suspected to be aimed for the White House crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The one headed for the White House seems to have been brought down by passengers who decided they wouldn’t permit their aircraft to be used as a weapon.

This isn’t a comprehensive list, and there have certainly been terrorist attacks since 9/11/2001, including the October 12, 2002 car bombing of a Bali nightclub by Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamic Indonesian terrorist group dedicated to forming an Islamic State in Indonesia. People have been kidnapped, tortured and beheaded. September 11, 2001 was one horrible and bloody date among many.

These Islamic Radicals, Fundamentalists, Terrorists, or whatever else we label them are implacable. In 2006, on the 5th anniversary of the 2001 attack against he United States, Ayman al-Zawahri, one of Bin Laden’s top deputies, said: “We have repeatedly warned you and offered a truce with you,” al-Zawahri said, addressing Americans. “Now we have all the legal and rational justification to continue to fight you until your power is destroyed or you give in and surrender.” Yes, they’ve made their terms clear in the past. Convert to radical Islam (moderate Muslims aren’t “Muslim enough” for them), or face extermination. Most consider these poor terms for a truce.

Our enemies are still there, still working hard to kill us. “United we Stand,” everyone proclaimed after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then why are we fighting now, the liberals saying our actions as a country in trying to deny our enemies the power to hit us again weren’t justified, and that our continuing efforts aren’t justified? Do we not remember Palestinians handing out candy and celebrating our losses 7 years ago?

We can’t slump sobbing on our couches watching memorial presentations on 9/11/2001. We have to remind our elected representatives we expect results. As long as we have military in the Middle East, it’s time to turn the news cameras off, stop prosecuting our men and women for doing their jobs based on Al Jezeera reports and tell our military, “Do whatever you have to to make them stop.” When we take the gloves off, we as Americans, united in our pain and anger, but more importantly, in our sincere resolve to protect our children’s futures, can absolutely get this job done and end the threat of fundamentalist Islamic terrorists.

In 2006, the day after I posted this at another blog, Islamic militants, likely Hezbollah, helped prove my point. They attacked the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria. They were using automatic rifles and hand grenades and had a van packed with explosives. They didn’t make it into the compound and were shot by Syrian anti-terrorism forces. Witnesses reported that the terrorists tried to throw grenades into the U.S. Embassy while shouting “Allah akbar!” or “God is Great.” This is the chant used as background for Al-Qaeda’s release of 9/11/2001 memoirs yesterday, and the chant normally used while cutting off innocent kidnap victims’ heads.

I’m not a prophet, but somehow I can’t think that these acts glorify anyone’s god in any degree. They believe it, though, again demonstrating this is an ongoing war against a persistent enemy, not an isolated incident 7 years in our past. That attack was one more demonstration that Islamic Fundamentalists won’t be reasoned with and won’t be understood. They must be killed, before they kill us.

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"Government can not inject a single dollar into the economy that it hasn't first taken out of the economy." -Tom McClintock

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles. -Jeff Cooper, "The Art of the Rifle"

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.-Alexis de Tocqueville

The Founders based the Constitution not on contemporary political theory of the 1700's, but on the immutable principles of human nature.